Imagine A Chat With Explorer

Entertainment - ABOUT TOWN

It's a newspaperman's dream. Imagine, the opportunity to interview personally the Great Discoverer, Christopher Columbus, face to face, one-on-one.

Eat your heart out, Larry King. Sorry about that, Barbara Walters.

The occasion was the annual Italian Festival at The Villages in Lady Lake earlier this week. Columbus, resplendent in his 15th century attire, greeted thousands of well-wishers on the parade route around Town Square.

I was there with pen and pad in hand, huddling briefly with Columbus after the parade, which, of course, was the highlight of the celebration.

"Our club members outdid themselves with the [decorated] golf carts," gushed Fran Nappi, who, as director of entertainment for the Italian-American club of The Villages, served as parade coordinator. "There were more members participating this year and, as usual, they took that extra effort in decorating the carts. I was so thrilled."

The parade marshal was state Sen. Anna Cowin, who rode in the lead golf cart driven by Nappi. The senator's mother, Frances Pecoraro, followed in the procession.

As Nappi, a transplant from Long Island, pointed out, the golf cart parade was a veritable Italian work of art, much more than balloons and flags that were the instant eye-catcher.

The carts were festooned with maps, pictures, wine and food settings, models of Columbus' three ships -- anything and everything Italian.

Also participating were The Villages Cheerleaders, Opera Club and Golf Cart Drill Team, along with Lake Weir High School Dixieland Band.

The parade was only the kickoff of evening-long festivities, which centered on the square. The bands and special events were lined up by The Villages Entertainment Office.

But, back to Columbus. By now, we were old buddies.

"Tell me, Chris, is it true that you introduced pizza to the New World in 1492?" I asked the Great Explorer.

Without batting an eyelash, Columbus responded: "No, no -- it was spaghetti. Remember, Marco Polo brought back spaghetti from China. We gave it the sauce. It was spaghetti with our sauce that I brought to the New World."

Mama mia! Old Chris knows how to play the media game. Here I stood, scribbling spaghetti balderdash onto my pad and beginning to wonder, who was pulling whose leg.

The guy's a charmer. Now I understood how he captivated Queen Isabella, who gave her jewels to finance his sailing to the New World in hopes of bringing back riches.

In reality, Columbus was portrayed by Domenico Lepore, a Villager by way of Queens, N.Y. A retired hair-dresser, Lepore came to the United States from his native Italy in 1956, long after Cristoforo Colombo departed the continent for parts unknown.

On our way to the parking lot, heading for home, my missus and I stopped to talk to Buzz Brown, brewmaster for The Villages' Spanish Springs Brewing Co. He was manning a tap at his beer wagon on Main Street.

It was a lucky stop for me, because, across the way, the band was striking up after a break. It was P.J. Leary and the Las Vegas Sounds, one of four bands entertaining at various locations around the Square. I had never heard the group. Simply put, we were wowed by P.J. and the toe-tapping '50s sounds. I ordered up two beers from Buzz and decided to stay.

On their next break, I introduced myself to P.J., who, it turned out, is a fellow Philadelphian. What's more, in 1958, P.J. and his group (the Nu Tornados) recorded the No. 1 hit, "Philadelphia U.S.A.," produced by Dick Clark and Bob Marcucci.

These days, P.J., who lives in Leesburg, runs Sunshine Center Furniture and Appliance Store at 15200 Old U.S. Highway 441 in Tavares.